Immigrant girls and women will no longer have to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus to get their green cards. Girls and women seeking to become legal permanent U.S. residents were required to get at least the first dose of the vaccine against human papillomavirus. Starting Dec. 14, the HPV vaccine will no longer be on the list of immunizations that immigrants must receive before getting their green card, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

Re "1 in 4 teens got cervical cancer vaccine in '07," Feb. 18 Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine, has been widely accepted in California, but it is not 100% effective. Most cervical cancers are caused by a very common sexually transmitted infection -- the human papillomavirus (HPV). There are more than a dozen high-risk strains of HPV capable of causing cervical cancer, but the vaccine only protects against four strains of HPV, two of which are known to cause 70% of cervical cancer cases.

A large study of girls and young women who received the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil has found only three confirmed cases of allergic reaction out of 380,000 shots. The study, published today in the British Medical Journal, was based on vaccination data from Australia, which has had a nationwide program to vaccinate females ages 12 to 26 in schools since April 2007.

Two French researchers who discovered the human AIDS virus and a German scientist who showed that human papilloma virus causes cervical cancer were awarded Monday the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The decision in effect ends the long-running dispute between France's Luc Monta- gnier and America's Robert Gallo, concluding that Monta- gnier and his colleague Francoise Barre-Sinoussi were the discoverers of the virus. More than 33 million people worldwide are HIV carriers.

Sandra Levy wants to do everything she can to safeguard the health of her 11-year-old daughter -- and that, of course, includes cancer prevention. She has had her child inoculated with one shot of Gardasil, the human papilloma virus vaccine that may prevent cervical cancer. But now, she says, she has serious reservations about going ahead with the next two injections of the course. "It's very confusing, and we really don't know if it's 100% safe," says Levy, of Long Beach.

Vaccines aren't just for kids, but far too few grown-ups are rolling up their sleeves, disappointed federal health officials reported Wednesday. The numbers of the newly vaccinated are surprisingly low, considering how much public attention a trio of new shots -- which protect against shingles, whooping cough and cervical cancer -- have received. Yet many people seem to have missed, or forgotten, the news: A survey by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases found that aside from the flu, most adults have trouble naming diseases that they could prevent with a simple inoculation.

Using a traditional Pap smear with a relatively new screening test for the virus that causes cervical cancer significantly improves the chances of early detection, according to new research published today. The study of 12,527 women found that the combination of tests detected 51% more cancers and precancerous lesions in initial screenings than the Pap test alone.

My wife had a Pap smear every year of her adult life ["HPV Test or Pap: Understanding the Choices," July 2]. I know, because I was with her since the 11th grade. When doctors found cervical cancer it was stage IVB, no treatment, no cure. She was the "one in a thousand," and died a year later at a too-young 57 years old. If HPV tests had been in use she might have had a chance. Take the test. Even if the results are confusing, as Dr.

Advertisements can be very persuasive -- whether they're promoting a snack food, a toy or even a medical test. If you've watched much television lately, you may have seen a commercial touting the benefits of a relatively new screening test for cervical cancer. Its message is unambiguous: "A Pap test isn't enough." The advertisement encourages women to get tested for human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus known to cause cervical cancer.

New data on the controversial HPV vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer have raised serious questions about its efficacy, researchers reported today, potentially undercutting the efforts in many states to make vaccination mandatory. Although the vaccine, called Gardasil, blocked about 100% of infections by the two human papilloma virus strains it targets, it reduced the incidence of cancer precursors by only 17% overall.